Meme Weaving

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Robert Sapolsky, world-renowned lecturer and professor of neurological and biological sciences, gave this talk to a packed audience of students and faculty of all disciplines at Stanford in 2009.

A densely-packed and characteristically lively lecture, consider it a “state of evolutionary anthropology” delivered within a mere 20 minutes.

Discovering the story of humanity continues to reach ever-greater technological complexity and where we stand on the evolutionary ladder will be one of the greatest research accomplishments of this era. The run-away proliferation of information and novelty within our species is most certainly unique; therefore, the importance of understanding the other well-defined ways in which we are unique cannot be overstated.

Sapolsky also points out the implications of recent research on dopamine receptivity and the parallels between chimpanizee and human behavior where rewards are concerned:

“Take a monkey and there’s nothing more addictive out there than the notion that there’s a reward lurking out there, and it’s a MAYBE.

Some of our best social engineers many of them making a good living in Las Vegas learn how to do is how to [create the illusion of] a 50% probability of reward, to make it that salient, when there’s a tenth or a hundredth of a chance of reward.”

The quality of “addictiveness” of a situation, object, or action should provoke the interest of any memeticist, as “mindless” behaviors are often the most frequently copied and repeated, and often with the greatest fidelity from host to host.

When it comes to that delayed reward system, Sapolsky says the uniqueness of humans comes down our capacity to “hold on”. Of all animals, we can carry out chains of actions that take weeks, years, decades, entire lifetimes — all on the premise of the probability of reward.

As Sapolsky points out, that delayed gratification system puts the belief systems of some religions into an explanatory light. After all, what is the meme of heaven if not the ultimate reward for a lifetime of servitude?

The most important piece of the meme hypothesis is that human knowledge is copied, from person to person and from culture to culture, throughout history. This transmission of knowledge between humans forms the basis for civilization. But how and why is human knowledge copied so readily and rapidly?

In this short TED presentation, V.S. Ramachandran introduces the mirror neuron, a piece of the cognition puzzle only recently deduced from neuroscientific study, which could explain the neurological basis for imitation, empathy, and civilization itself.

Reality TV is driving reality. –Cynthia Schneider

On the evolution of “losing gracefully”

I’d like to provide some context for the comment about “Afhgans learning to lose gracefully”. Over the course of the first four seasons of the AFGHAN IDOL program, the behavior of the contestants changed. In the first couple of seasons, those who lost did not always take it well, and sometimes reacted strongly, even violently. This behavior has changed over time as contestants and their fans got used to the ups and downs of winning in losing. In recent Afghan history (Russian occupation and Taliban) there have not been many opportunities to experience winning and losing in what otherwise might be normal activities of sports and talent contests. So, it is not surprising that reactions to winning and losing in the public arena of Afghan Star have evolved over time. –Cynthia Schneider